Scoring sheet
How we scored the best payment providers for selling software
Every score in The best payment providers for selling software comes from this sheet: the tools we considered, the scale for each criterion, and the evidence and date behind each score.
This page shows the working behind the best payment providers for selling software: the field, the criteria and weights, what each score means, and every score with the source behind it.
Everything here comes from desk research: pricing pages, fee and payout documentation, help centers, migration guides and changelogs, all read on October 21, 2026. We did not open accounts or run test checkouts with any of these providers, so nothing here says how good a checkout feels, how often a provider freezes accounts or how fast its support answers. The fee figures are arithmetic on the published price lists, and the formulas are set out below so you can check them.
The question and the reader
The question, in the reader's words: "What's the best payment provider for selling software or SaaS as an indie developer?" People also ask which merchant of record is best ("Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Polar, Creem or Dodo Payments?"), how much they keep from a $10 sale, and whether to use Stripe or a merchant of record for sales tax and VAT. We asked four AI models (GPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, through their APIs with web search on) those four questions in October 2026, which gave 16 answers. Those answers and the pages they cite helped build the field below.
The reader is a solo developer or small team based in the United States, selling software, a SaaS subscription or a digital download to buyers around the world, mostly consumers. They want to know what they keep from each sale, who deals with sales tax and VAT, and what it costs to change their mind later.
Must-haves
A provider had to pass all three to be scored. These are filters, not criteria.
- It takes card payments online for software or digital products, with a hosted checkout or payment link a solo developer can set up.
- It publishes its fees, so they can be checked without talking to sales.
- It accepts sellers based in the United States without a sales call.
The field
| Provider | Named in the 16 AI answers | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe | 14 | Scored |
| Paddle | 12 | Scored |
| Polar | 11 | Scored |
| Lemon Squeezy | 10 | Scored |
| Creem | 5 | Scored |
| Dodo Payments | 5 | Scored |
| Stripe Managed Payments | 3 | Scored separately from Stripe, because it changes who the seller is, the fees and the tax work |
| PayPal | 3 | Not scored: a payment method and processor, not a merchant of record, and most providers here accept PayPal at checkout |
| FastSpring | 1 | Not scored: no public price list. FastSpring's pricing page asks for a business email to get a quote, so it fails must-have 2 |
| RevenueCat | 1 | Not scored: subscription software for apps sold through the App Store and Google Play, which sits on top of those stores and other processors |
| Gumroad | 0 | Scored. No answer named it, but it is the best-known store for selling digital products and acts as merchant of record |
| Fungies | 0 | Scored. No answer named it, but it publishes its fees as a merchant of record and the answers cited its pages |
| Freemius | 0 | Scored. No answer named it, but it publishes its fees as a merchant of record for SaaS and desktop software, and the answers cited its comparison pages |
| Chargebee and Recurly | 0 | Not scored: billing software that runs on top of a payment processor such as Stripe, not payment providers in their own right |
| 2Checkout (Verifone) | 0 | Not scored: fails must-have 2 for the plan that compares. Its pricing page lists 2Sell at 3.5% + 35¢ and 2Subscribe at 4.5% + 45¢, but global tax compliance comes only with 2Monetize, which has "tailored pricing" |
| PayPro Global and Cleverbridge | 0 | Not scored: no public price list. PayPro Global's pricing page asks you to get a quote, and we found no published rates for Cleverbridge, so both fail must-have 2. The answers cited both |
| Braintree | 0 | Not scored: a payment processor owned by PayPal, not a merchant of record; it leaves tax to you as plain Stripe does, and Stripe covers that kind here |
| Xsolla | 0 | Not scored: a merchant of record built for video games, not general software or SaaS |
Criteria and weights
These were set before any provider was scored.
| Criterion | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 30 | What the provider takes, on average, across eight sales: $10 and $100, one-time and subscription renewal, to a US buyer and to a consumer in Germany |
| Tax handled | 30 | How much of the sales tax and VAT work the provider takes off you: acting as the legal seller, or only calculating tax, or nothing |
| Billing features | 15 | Subscriptions with trials and proration, usage-based billing, license keys, a customer portal, and seat or quantity pricing |
| Leaving | 15 | Whether you can move your customers' saved cards and data to another provider without asking every subscriber to pay again |
| Getting paid | 10 | How many seller countries it accepts, how long money takes to reach you, and what a payout costs |
Why these weights: cost and tax are the two reasons people pick between a plain processor and a merchant of record, so they count most and count equally. A cheaper fee that leaves you filing VAT returns in the EU is not cheaper for most solo sellers, and tax handling that costs twice as much isn't either. Billing features and leaving matter most to subscription businesses: a missing feature means building it yourself, and a provider that won't hand over saved cards means asking every subscriber to re-enter a card when you move, which loses some of them. Getting paid counts least because every provider here pays out eventually and the differences are days, not months.
Not scored: checkout conversion, approval and account review (which providers accept which businesses), fraud tools and support quality. We found no independent test with a published method that covers this field, and we didn't run checkouts ourselves.
What each score means
Cost: from the average fee
For each provider we worked out the fee on eight sales and took the average fee as a share of the list price. The score is 10 for an average fee of 4% or less and 0 for 16% or more, on a straight line in between (each 1.2 percentage points of fee costs one point), rounded to one decimal.
The eight sales:
- List prices of $10 and $100, priced in US dollars with tax added on top, paid by card in US dollars, so no currency conversion.
- A US buyer in Oregon, which has no sales tax, paying with a US card.
- A consumer in Germany, who pays 19% VAT on top and uses a card issued outside the US.
- Each one as a one-time purchase and as a subscription renewal.
The fee rules, from each provider's price list on October 21, 2026:
| Provider | Fee on each sale |
|---|---|
| Stripe | 2.9% + 30¢, plus 1.5% for international cards, plus 0.7% on subscription payments (Billing, pay as you go), plus 0.5% where you're registered to collect tax (Stripe Tax Basic, no-code). We count the 0.5% on the German sale, because a US seller must register for EU VAT from its first sale to an EU consumer, and not on the Oregon sale |
| Stripe Managed Payments | Stripe's card fees as above, plus 3.5% on the full amount including tax, plus 0.7% on subscription payments. No Stripe Tax fee |
| Paddle | 5% + 50¢, with no extra for international cards or subscriptions |
| Lemon Squeezy | 5% + 50¢, plus 1.5% for buyers outside the US, plus 0.5% on subscription payments |
| Polar (Starter plan) | 5% + 50¢, plus 1.5% for international cards |
| Creem | 3.9% + 40¢, with no extra for international cards |
| Dodo Payments | 4% + 40¢, plus 1.5% for international payments, plus 0.5% on subscriptions |
| Gumroad | 10% + 50¢, plus card processing of 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Fungies | 5% + 50¢, with no extra for international cards or subscriptions |
| Freemius | 3.8% + 50¢, plus Stripe or PayPal gateway fees passed through at cost, which Freemius puts at "an average effective rate" of 3.5% |
Every provider that says how it charges, Stripe and Freemius included, takes its percentage from the total the buyer pays, tax included. So on the German sale the fee applies to $11.90 or $119, not $10 or $100. Gumroad doesn't say which amount its 10% applies to; we apply the 10% to the list price and the 2.9% card processing to the amount charged, which is the cheaper reading for Gumroad. Fungies doesn't say either; we apply its 5% to the total like the others, which is the dearer reading for Fungies (on the list price its average fee would be 7.8% and its Cost score 6.9). Freemius publishes no gateway price list, so we apply its stated 3.5% average to every sale.
What each provider keeps, in US dollars:
| Provider | $10, US, one-time | $100, US, one-time | $10, Germany, one-time | $100, Germany, one-time | $10, US, renewal | $100, US, renewal | $10, Germany, renewal | $100, Germany, renewal | Average fee | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stripe | 9.41 | 96.80 | 9.12 | 93.87 | 9.34 | 96.10 | 9.03 | 93.04 | 6.4% | 8.0 |
| Creem | 9.21 | 95.70 | 9.14 | 94.96 | 9.21 | 95.70 | 9.14 | 94.96 | 6.5% | 7.9 |
| Dodo Payments | 9.20 | 95.60 | 8.95 | 93.06 | 9.15 | 95.10 | 8.89 | 92.46 | 7.7% | 6.9 |
| Paddle | 9.00 | 94.50 | 8.90 | 93.55 | 9.00 | 94.50 | 8.90 | 93.55 | 8.2% | 6.5 |
| Polar | 9.00 | 94.50 | 8.73 | 91.77 | 9.00 | 94.50 | 8.73 | 91.77 | 9.1% | 5.7 |
| Lemon Squeezy | 9.00 | 94.50 | 8.73 | 91.77 | 8.95 | 94.00 | 8.67 | 91.17 | 9.4% | 5.5 |
| Stripe Managed Payments | 9.06 | 93.30 | 8.76 | 90.30 | 8.99 | 92.60 | 8.68 | 89.47 | 9.9% | 5.1 |
| Fungies | 9.00 | 94.50 | 8.90 | 93.55 | 9.00 | 94.50 | 8.90 | 93.55 | 8.2% | 6.5 |
| Freemius | 8.77 | 92.20 | 8.63 | 90.81 | 8.77 | 92.20 | 8.63 | 90.81 | 10.7% | 4.4 |
| Gumroad | 7.91 | 86.30 | 7.85 | 85.75 | 7.91 | 86.30 | 7.85 | 85.75 | 17.6% | 0 |
Stripe's figures leave out the cost of the tax work you do yourself on Stripe: registering for EU VAT and filing a return every quarter, or paying Stripe Tax Complete (from $90 a month on a one-year contract) or an accountant to do it. The Tax handled criterion scores that difference. Payout fees, dispute fees, refunds and currency conversion are not in these figures; payout fees are part of Getting paid. Dispute fees, from each provider's pages: Stripe $15 (plus $15 to counter, refunded if you win), Polar $15, Lemon Squeezy $15, Paddle $20 (kept even when Paddle wins), Creem $25, Dodo Payments $30, Freemius $15 to $20 passed on from the processor when a dispute is lost, Fungies none (covered by its fee), Stripe Managed Payments Stripe's standard dispute fees, Gumroad not published.
Tax handled
- 10: the provider is the merchant of record (the legal seller) for every sale, so it calculates, collects, files and pays sales tax and VAT everywhere it sells.
- 8: merchant of record, but you stay responsible for tax in some countries it sells to.
- 5: the provider calculates and collects tax where you're registered and offers registration and filing as a paid extra, but you remain the seller.
- 4: calculates tax only.
- 0: no tax tools.
Billing features: two points for each
- Subscriptions with free trials and automatic proration when a customer changes plan.
- Usage-based (metered) billing.
- License keys for downloadable software.
- A hosted customer portal where buyers update cards, download invoices and cancel.
- Seat or quantity pricing.
A feature that exists only as a workaround (for example, adding one-time charges by hand instead of metering usage) counts for one point.
Leaving: the sum of three parts
- 6: the provider documents how to export your customers' saved cards to another processor, and the export covers these sales. 3: it states that your data can be migrated, or documents an export whose procedure or scope for these sales isn't published. 0: neither.
- 2: saved cards sit in a payment account you own.
- 2: you can export customer, order and subscription records.
Getting paid: the sum of three parts
- Seller countries: 5 for 150 or more, 4 for 100 to 149, 3 for 40 to 99, 2 for fewer than 40.
- Speed, the longest wait from a sale to the money being sent under the default schedule: 3 for seven days or less, 2 for eight to 21 days, 1 for 22 days or more.
- Payout fees for a US bank account: 2 for free, 1 for small fixed or percentage fees, 0 for $7 or 1% of the payout or more.
Scores
Everything below was read on October 21, 2026.
Polar: total 8.1
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 5.7 | Starter plan 5% + 50¢, plus 1.5% for international cards, on the total including VAT (Polar fees). Average fee 9.1%. Paid plans lower the rate: Pro at $20 a month charges 3.8% + 40¢, Growth at $100 a month 3.6% + 35¢ and Scale at $400 a month 3.4% + 30¢ (same page). Organizations created before May 27, 2026 keep an Early Member rate of 4% + 40¢ plus 0.5% on subscriptions. We score the Starter plan, which every new seller starts on |
| Tax handled | 10 | Polar is the merchant of record for every sale (merchant of record introduction) |
| Billing features | 10 | Subscriptions with trials and proration, usage-based billing with meters, license keys, a customer portal and seat-based pricing. 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 |
| Leaving | 8 | Polar's migrate-away guide says support exports saved cards either to another Stripe account or through Stripe's card export to any PCI-compliant processor; products and subscriptions have to be recreated at the new provider, and payouts are paused for 120 days after a migration. Cards sit in Polar's Stripe account, not yours. Customer and order data are available through Polar's API. 6 + 0 + 2. Stripe's card export leaves out cards saved through Link (see Stripe below), and Polar doesn't say whether its checkout saves cards through Link, so ask before you rely on the export. The page isn't listed in Polar's own documentation index; we saved a copy on October 21, 2026 |
| Getting paid | 7 | Payouts to 119 countries through Stripe Connect Express (supported countries). A 7-day settlement delay for organizations created from May 12, 2026, then a withdrawal you start yourself. Stripe's payout fees apply: $2 for each month with a payout, plus 0.25% + 25¢ per payout (payouts). 4 + 2 + 1 |
Dodo Payments: total 7.7
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 6.9 | 4% + 40¢, plus 1.5% for international payments and 0.5% on subscriptions (Dodo Payments pricing), on the total including tax (merchant of record introduction). Average fee 7.7%. PayPal and buy-now-pay-later cost 3% more; refunds $1 and disputes $30 (pricing page) |
| Tax handled | 10 | Dodo Payments is the merchant of record. Its pricing page says "Automated tax calculation, filling and reporting in 190+ countries"; its merchant of record introduction says it accepts payments from, and handles tax in, 220+ countries and regions. Either way it is the seller for every sale |
| Billing features | 10 | Subscriptions with trials and proration, usage-based billing, license keys, a customer portal and seat-based pricing. 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 |
| Leaving | 2 | Dodo's migration guide covers moving subscribers in from other providers, not out. We found no documented card export. Customer and payment records are available through its API. 0 + 0 + 2 |
| Getting paid | 8 | Accepts sellers from 177 countries (accepted countries). Default schedule twice a month: sales from the 1st to the 15th are paid on the 18th, and sales from the 16th to the end of the month on the 4th, about 19 days at worst (payout structure). Payouts are free above $1,000 and cost $5 below; SWIFT payouts $25 (pricing page). 5 + 2 + 1 |
Creem: total 7.6
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 7.9 | 3.9% + 40¢ with no international card fee (Creem pricing), on the total order value (payouts and fees). Average fee 6.5%, the lowest of the merchants of record. Chargebacks cost $25 |
| Tax handled | 10 | Creem is the merchant of record. Its documentation says it remits tax "in 190+ countries" (introduction); its pricing page says "50+ countries". As merchant of record it is the seller for every sale either way |
| Billing features | 10 | Subscriptions with trials and proration, usage-based billing with meters, license keys, a customer portal and seat-based billing. 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 |
| Leaving | 2 | Creem's migration guide is for moving in, and says active subscriptions can't be moved automatically. We found no documented card export. Customer and order records are available through its API. 0 + 0 + 2 |
| Getting paid | 4 | Accepts sellers in 87 countries (supported countries). Payouts go out on the 1st and 15th after you request one, with a $50 minimum, and "payments may be held for 7-12 days for risk assessment" first, so a sale can wait close to four weeks. Bank payouts cost $7 or 1%, whichever is higher; USDC payouts 2% (payouts and fees). 3 + 1 + 0 |
Paddle: total 7.6
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 6.5 | 5% + 50¢ per transaction, with no monthly fee; products under $10 can ask for bespoke pricing (Paddle pricing). The fee applies to the total including tax (how earnings are calculated). Average fee 8.2%. Paddle adds nothing for international cards or subscriptions, which is why it beats Polar and Lemon Squeezy on the German sales. "The chargeback fee is 20 USD/GBP/EUR", and it isn't returned when Paddle wins (understanding chargebacks) |
| Tax handled | 10 | Paddle is the merchant of record for every sale (pricing page) |
| Billing features | 7 | Subscriptions with trials and proration, a customer portal and quantities. Native usage-based billing with meters is in "early access (beta). Join the program to learn more" (Paddle's developer docs), so we score it as a workaround: outside the beta, usage is billed by adding one-time charges to a subscription. If metering reaches general availability this becomes 9 and Paddle's total 7.70, which would put it second. No license keys in Paddle Billing. 2 + 1 + 0 + 2 + 2 |
| Leaving | 5 | Paddle's pricing page says "your data is 100% yours and can be migrated to another provider if needed", with no lock-in period, but publishes no card export procedure. Providers that import from Paddle describe one: Dodo Payments' migration guide says "Paddle stores cards with IXOPAY (TokenEx), so the export comes from IXOPAY", and Lemon Squeezy's migrating from Paddle lists payment methods. Cards sit in Paddle's systems. Customer, subscription and transaction records are available through its API. 3 + 0 + 2 |
| Getting paid | 8 | Sells to and accepts sellers in every country except a short unsupported list (supported countries). Payouts are monthly: the balance converts on the 1st and is sent by the 15th, with a $100 minimum, so a sale can wait about six weeks. No payout fee in most countries; a $15 SWIFT fee in some (when and how you get paid). 5 + 1 + 2 |
Creem and Paddle both total 7.6 after rounding. Creem is listed first because its unrounded total is higher (7.57 against 7.55).
Stripe: total 7.4
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 8.0 | Cards 2.9% + 30¢, plus 1.5% for international cards and 1% if currency conversion is needed; Billing pay as you go 0.7% of Billing volume; Stripe Tax Basic 0.5% per transaction where you're registered, no-code (Stripe pricing). Average fee 6.4%, the lowest scored, before the cost of your own tax filings; Creem keeps slightly more on both German sales. Disputes cost $15, plus $15 to counter one, refunded if you win. The first payout to a new account takes 7 to 14 days (payouts) |
| Tax handled | 5 | You are the seller. Stripe Tax Basic calculates and collects tax where you're registered; Stripe Tax Complete, from $90 a month on a one-year contract, adds threshold monitoring, registrations and filings in more than 90 countries (pricing page) |
| Billing features | 8 | Subscriptions with trials and proration, usage-based billing, a customer portal and quantities. No license keys. 2 + 2 + 0 + 2 + 2 |
| Leaving | 10 | Stripe documents exporting saved card data to another PCI-compliant processor (card data export). Cards sit in your own Stripe account, and every record is available through the API. 6 + 2 + 2. The same page says "We exclude any credentials saved through Link from our exports." We keep the full 6 because Link is optional in Stripe Checkout and you can turn it off, so the export covers the cards you choose to save; if your buyers save cards through Link, those won't move. Scoring the card part at 3 instead would give Stripe 7.0, below Lemon Squeezy and Fungies |
| Getting paid | 8 | stripe.com/global lists 51 countries, 44 of them open to sign-up (five are "Extended network" and two "Preview"). Stripe lists standard T+2 settlement for US accounts, so a sale is paid out about 2 business days later (payouts), with no fee for standard payouts to a US bank. 3 + 3 + 2 |
Lemon Squeezy: total 7.3
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 5.5 | 5% + 50¢ on the total order value, plus 1.5% for buyers outside the US, 1.5% for PayPal and 0.5% on subscription payments (Lemon Squeezy fees; pricing). Average fee 9.4%. On refunds, "The refunded amount (minus our platform fee) will be deducted from your next payout", a chargeback costs a $15 dispute fee, and Lemon Squeezy "reserves the right to issue refunds within 60 days of purchase, at its own discretion, in order to prevent chargebacks" (refunds and chargebacks) |
| Tax handled | 10 | Lemon Squeezy is the merchant of record for every sale (fees page) |
| Billing features | 10 | Subscriptions with trials and prorations, usage-based billing, license keys, a customer portal and quantities. 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 |
| Leaving | 2 | Lemon Squeezy documents no card export of its own. Dodo Payments' migration guide says Stripe-based platforms "such as Polar, Lemon Squeezy, and Chargebee" keep cards in the underlying Stripe account, exportable through a Stripe request, but Lemon Squeezy doesn't say so. Orders, customers and subscriptions are available through its API and dashboard exports (exporting subscribers). 0 + 0 + 2 |
| Getting paid | 8 | Bank payouts to about 120 countries and PayPal payouts to more than 200 (supported countries). Payouts are created on the 1st and 15th and paid on the 14th and 28th after a 13-day hold; Lemon Squeezy's own example has a sale on the 4th paid out on the 28th (getting paid). Free to US bank accounts; PayPal payouts cost 50¢ in the US. 5 + 1 + 2 |
Not scored, but on the page: Stripe bought Lemon Squeezy in 2024, and in its January 2026 update the Lemon Squeezy team said it has been building Stripe Managed Payments, admitted "slower support responses and less frequent product updates", and wrote "Our goal is to provide Lemon Squeezy users an easy way to migrate to Stripe Managed Payments."
Fungies: total 7.2
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 6.5 | 5% + 50¢ per sale, "and nothing else": no surcharge for international cards, subscriptions or PayPal (Fungies pricing). Fungies doesn't say whether the 5% applies before or after tax; on the total, like the others, its average fee is 8.2%, the same as Paddle. No per-dispute fee |
| Tax handled | 10 | Fungies is the merchant of record: "We calculate, collect, remit, and file as your Merchant of Record" (pricing page) |
| Billing features | 7 | Subscriptions with free trials and prorated upgrades and downgrades, and a hosted customer portal where buyers update their card, change plan and cancel. Usage is billed by extra charges on a subscription through the API, with no meters. Keys are game or license keys you upload, not generated license keys. Seats only through a custom checkout field you handle yourself. 2 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 1 |
| Leaving | 2 | Buyers pay into Fungies' Stripe account, which then pays your connected Stripe account (connect your Stripe account), so saved cards sit with Fungies. We found no documented card export. Orders and subscriptions are available through its API. 0 + 0 + 2 |
| Getting paid | 9 | Payouts through Stripe Connect to 118 countries listed on its payouts page, automatic and daily by default after a first payout 7 to 14 days after your first sale, with no per-payout fee from Fungies. 4 + 3 + 2 |
Freemius: total 6.8
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 4.4 | 3.8% + 50¢ "per successful transaction, plus gateway fees", on "the full transaction amount, including any sales tax or VAT collected" (our pricing; pricing FAQ). Gateway fees are Stripe's and PayPal's, passed through at cost; Freemius gives "an average effective rate" of 3.5%, which we apply to every sale. Average fee 10.7%. No surcharges for subscriptions, PayPal or payouts. On refunds the 3.8% part comes back but not the 50¢ or the gateway fees, and a lost dispute costs $15 to $20 |
| Tax handled | 10 | Freemius is a merchant of record and handles US sales tax and UK and EU VAT (what Freemius does) |
| Billing features | 9 | Subscriptions with trials, with or without a card, and proration on plan changes; license keys with activation; a customer portal for downloads, keys, card updates, invoices and renewals; and multi-unit pricing. Usage is sold as prepaid credit top-ups that you track yourself, with no meters. 2 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 2 |
| Leaving | 2 | Its migration guides cover moving in, from WordPress marketplaces. We found no documented card export, and cards sit with Freemius' Stripe and PayPal accounts. Customer and sales records are available through its API. 0 + 0 + 2 |
| Getting paid | 8 | Pays sellers in 190+ countries and territories by PayPal, Payoneer, Wise or wire (supported countries). Earnings for a month are calculated on the 1st of the second month after and paid on the 10th, with a $100 minimum, so a January sale is paid on March 10 (your earnings). "We don't charge any fees on payouts" (our pricing). 5 + 1 + 2 |
Stripe Managed Payments: total 6.2
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 5.1 | 3.5% per transaction on the full amount including tax, on top of standard Stripe payment fees, plus Billing's 0.7% on subscription payments; no Stripe Tax fee on these transactions (Managed Payments pricing). Average fee 9.9%. The same FAQ says Stripe's standard dispute fees may apply on top |
| Tax handled | 8 | Stripe, through Link, is the merchant of record and handles tax compliance in more than 80 countries by its documentation, "75+" by its pricing FAQ and pricing page; "for transactions in countries where Managed Payments doesn't handle indirect tax compliance, you remain responsible for compliance" (how Managed Payments works). Buyers see "Sold through Link" and LINK.COM* on their statements |
| Billing features | 7 | Stripe Billing subscriptions with trials and proration through Checkout and Payment Links, the customer portal and quantities. Usage-based billing isn't documented for Managed Payments, and some invoice-item and one-off invoice features are unsupported (Managed Payments overview). No license keys. 2 + 1 + 0 + 2 + 2 |
| Leaving | 4 | Customer and PaymentMethod objects stay in your own Stripe account (how Managed Payments works), so the cards are in an account you own, and every record is available through the API. But "Managed Payments checkout pages use Link for the transaction" (same page), and Stripe's card data export says "We exclude any credentials saved through Link from our exports", so we found no documented way to move these cards. 0 + 2 + 2 |
| Getting paid | 6 | Open to businesses in 37 locations: Canada, the US, 31 European countries, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore (eligibility); the April 22, 2026 changelog says 39. Stripe publishes no payout schedule for Managed Payments beyond "up to 4x faster than the monthly cycles typical of other providers" (Managed Payments). Speed 2 is our assumption from that line (a monthly cycle cut by four is about a week, plus a hold), not a documented schedule. Standard payouts to a US bank are free. 2 + 2 + 2 |
Also on the page: Managed Payments works only through Stripe Checkout and Payment Links, existing subscriptions can't be moved onto it (updating a Checkout integration), and Stripe may refund a buyer without your approval if you don't answer a support escalation within 48 hours (how Managed Payments works).
Gumroad: total 5.4
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | 0 | "10% + $0.50 fee + sales tax per transaction", plus card processing of 2.9% + 30¢ and PayPal fees; sales through Gumroad's Discover marketplace cost a flat 30% (Gumroad's fees). Once your paid sales in a calendar month reach $20,000, further direct sales that month cost 5% + 50¢, and the count resets each month (same page). Average fee 17.6% at the standard rate, beyond the 16% that scores 0 |
| Tax handled | 10 | "Gumroad now acts as the Merchant of Record for all sales" (sales tax on Gumroad) |
| Billing features | 8 | Memberships with tiers, free trials of a week or a month (selling memberships) and prorated upgrades; a "Manage membership" page where buyers change tier, update their card or cancel; and seats, prorated when added (guide to memberships). License keys for software. No usage-based billing. 2 + 0 + 2 + 2 + 2 |
| Leaving | 2 | No card export. Sales and customer lists can be exported. 0 + 0 + 2 |
| Getting paid | 9 | Bank payouts to about 125 countries, and PayPal payouts where banks aren't supported. Weekly payouts cover sales up to the previous Friday, each held at least seven days, with a $100 minimum, so a sale waits about two weeks at most; bank payouts carry no Gumroad fee and PayPal payouts cost 2% (getting paid). 5 + 2 + 2 |
The order
Polar 8.1, Dodo Payments 7.7, Creem 7.6, Paddle 7.6, Stripe 7.4, Lemon Squeezy 7.3, Fungies 7.2, Freemius 6.8, Stripe Managed Payments 6.2, Gumroad 5.4. The site computes each total as the weighted average of the scores, rounded to one decimal place.
How close is the top? Polar leads Dodo Payments by 0.44 before rounding, and all of it comes from Leaving: Polar documents a card export and Dodo Payments doesn't, worth 0.9 points. Dodo Payments wins Cost by 1.2 points (0.36 of the total) and Getting paid by 1 (0.1). Moving seven of the 100 weight points from Leaving to Cost would put Dodo Payments first, Creem second and Polar third. So the order at the top rests on one judgment: how much it is worth to be able to leave with your subscribers' cards. If you sell one-time downloads and have no subscribers to move, Dodo Payments or Creem is the better pick on these numbers.
Single scores that would change the order:
- Paddle's usage-based billing at 2 instead of 1 (if its metering beta reaches general availability) gives Paddle 7.70 against Dodo Payments' 7.67, and Paddle moves to second.
- Stripe's card-export part at 3 instead of 6 (if you count the Link exclusion against it) gives Stripe 7.0, and it drops from fifth to seventh, behind Lemon Squeezy and Fungies.
- Fungies' fee taken on the list price rather than the total gives it a Cost score of 6.9 and a total of 7.3 (7.32), and it moves from seventh to sixth, ahead of Lemon Squeezy (7.25).
Polar costs more than Paddle on international sales (9.1% against 8.2% on average) and still ranks above it, because Polar has metered billing and license keys (3 points of Billing features) and a documented card export (3 points of Leaving), worth 0.9 together against Paddle's 0.34 lead on Cost and Getting paid.
Stripe has the lowest fees on US sales and, narrowly, on average, and the best exit, and ranks fifth because you stay the seller: it scores 5 for tax against 10 for every merchant of record, which costs it 1.5 points. With no weight on tax it would be first.
What we couldn't check
- How each checkout converts, how often each provider rejects or freezes accounts, and how good its support is. These need accounts and real sales, and we have neither.
- Whether cards saved at Polar's checkout go through Link, which would put them outside Stripe's card export.
- Whether Paddle's or Lemon Squeezy's support will run the card export that importing providers describe; neither documents it.
- Gumroad's dispute fee, which it doesn't list.
- Which amount Fungies' 5% applies to when tax is added, and Freemius' gateway fee on any one sale (it publishes only an average).
- Paddle's currency conversion margin when a sale's currency differs from your balance currency, which a third-party review puts at 2% to 3% and Paddle's pricing page doesn't list.
- Which amount Gumroad's 10% applies to when tax is added. We used the reading that is cheaper for Gumroad, and it still scores 0.
- FastSpring's, 2Checkout 2Monetize's, PayPro Global's and Cleverbridge's fees, which they give only on request.
Changes before publishing
- October 21, 2026, during checking: Gumroad's Billing features rose from 7 to 8 when its membership help confirmed free trials and prorated tier upgrades (total 5.3 to 5.4). The order didn't change.
- October 22, 2026, after review: Stripe Managed Payments' Leaving fell from 7 to 4 (total 6.6 to 6.2), because Stripe's card export excludes cards saved through Link and every Managed Payments sale runs through Link. The order didn't change.
- October 22, 2026, after review: Fungies (7.2) and Freemius (6.8) added to the field and scored; 2Checkout, PayPro Global, Cleverbridge, Braintree and Xsolla skipped with reasons. Both new providers rank below Lemon Squeezy, so the top six didn't change.
- October 22, 2026, after review: no other score changed. Corrected evidence: Paddle's $20 chargeback fee and its usage-billing beta, Lemon Squeezy's refund wording, Creem's 7 to 12 day hold, Dodo Payments' 190+ and 220+ figures, Managed Payments' 75+ and 80+ tax coverage, Gumroad's $20,000 rule and its merchant of record source, and the card-export notes for Stripe, Polar, Paddle and Lemon Squeezy.